Stephen Yang

Bizarre problems with my Sony Wega -- Help needed!

Hi all -- I'm new to the forums and not much knowledge
which is why I turned to here.

ANyways, I own a 24" Wega Flatscreen (KVS24-100 I
think) purchased 1.5 years ago brand new from Circuit
City. My setup is simple, just connected through a
digital cable box and VCR. I didn't purchase the
extended warranty plan...

Things have been working great for all this time until
yesterday I tried turning the thing on with the cable
box remote, and the TV wouldn't turn on. Nor would it
turn on from the Sony remote. Weird. So I then tried
turning it on from the TV box, and it came on. But I
couldn't adjust the volume from either remote.

I then tried adjusting the volume from the TV box
itself and this is where the big problems came in: all
of a sudden, the TV channels started scrolling through
as if it was on auto-program only it wouldn't stop,
except when I started pressing volume +/- buttons
agin.

Not only that, the channel +/- buttons or any of the
buttons on the TV itself don't work properly.

I called SOny tech support and they ran me through the
turn off TV, change remote batteries, press all
buttons on remote twice thing and still it wouldn't
work.

Now I'm stuck with a TV that I can't change the
channel on.. a couple places I called seemed to think
it was possibly related to damaged processor chip or
power surge (can't recall recent lightning storms).

I'm frustrated and am not sure what to do next. Is it
worth repairing, knowing this might cost $150 or even
more?

Please reply if you have any insight! thanks

Steve Berger

It sounds like your cable box died. You can't do ch +/- on the TV because it probably only has channel 3 programmed into it (the box output). You could put in channel numbers directly with the TV remote but probably wouldn't get any stations unless you hooked up an antenna or bypassed the cable box and there were analog stations on the cable as well as digital ones. Try playing a video tape and use only the TV original remote to see if the TV works correctly for that function.

This assumes the equipment is connected in the correct order. Cable in to cable box to VCR to TV. If you reverse the VCR and cable box , it might work for a while but the lack of control signals to the box (blocked by VCR) will eventually cause problems.

Two other notes ;
1: Never plug the AC cord on the TV into the back of the cable box. The TV was not designed to be turned on and off by pulling the plug. This is what the switched power outlet on a box does. This may also been the cause of your turn-on problems.
2: There have been a lot of serious problems caused by spray glass cleaners dripping down the front of the picture tube damaging the circuit board and all of the front panel controls , also causing the symptoms you describe.

You need to figure out a method of checking out the TV independant of the VCR and cable box and cable signal since any one of these is more likely to be the cause of the symptoms than the TV itself.